Why I Can’t Shut Up About Juicing & 7 Juicing Recipes You Need to Try NOW!
It all started with a book I read. With me, it often does, and in this case, I read Eat Real To Heal by Nicolette Richer. I came across this book randomly at Barnes & Nobles when I went to pick up a different novel and I saw this one on sale. It is a short read, maybe 100 or so pages but dense in its nutritional knowledge on combatting chronic illness.
I had of course always known about juicing and was more or less on the fence about making it a daily practice of mine but this book quickly changed my tune.
Although historically, primitive human beings weren’t in the forest with a giant machine squeezing fruits and vegetables however, they were sure eating a lot more fruit and vegetable varieties throughout their day and therefore, our bodies were conditioned to require high amounts of particular vitamins and minerals. Now although juicing cannot be traced back to an evolutionary period where us as a species resembled cave people, it has been a practice around for a very long time.
As early as the 15th century, lemon juice had been a major lifesaver for those suffering from scurvy. What they learned then, as we are well aware of now, is lemons contain Vitamin C that acts as a potent antioxidant to fight disease. By 1922, the first version of a blender/juicer was born and people who have a more difficult time at eating enough fruits and vegetables were able to consume them in an alternative, but just as productive way.
In the book, Eat Real To Heal, Nicolette detailed a particular type of therapy to treat disease that was revolutionary in it’s concept when it was first introduced. It is called Gerson Therapy and it involves the treatment and reversal of degenerative disease through a daily juicing regiment and vegan diet.
This therapy was invented by Dr. Gerson in the 1930s and it was considered this revolutionary treatment that involved a simple diet change. Even now, new studies get published that detail the results of someone living with heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, some forms of cancer, autoimmune diseases, that prove that almost all of them can be aided by a healthier diet and serious increase in nutrient intake.
Around the same time that the Gerson Therapy protocol emerged, Norman Walker created the first juicer and sold it as a vehicle that can help you heal naturally. Tons of scientists and doctors began backing the research including the first president of the American Heart Association. It became a phenomenon by the 1950’s, however with every new concept, breeds skeptics and critics. Many people begged the question why drink juice and skip out on the fibre when you can just eat more fruits and vegetables?
Juicing provides a convenient way to streamline vitamins and nutrients into your body without overloading your digestive system by having to break down the fibre first, consequently releasing the hormone of “fullness” from your brain that makes you stop eating. You can juice a combination of kale, a green apple, pineapple, chard, watercress, and cucumber all into one juice and drink it no problem but I would not suggest trying to eat all of that at once. The combination of those fruits and vegetables alone provides you with an abundance of antioxidants and at least 10 different disease fighting vitamins and minerals.
When you factor in busy on-the-go lifestyles, it is just truly too difficult for us to get enough fruits and vegetables we need in a day whether we are healthy and not currently suffering from any deficiencies or you are someone fighting a disease. We could all use the boost that garners no side-effects other then healthier skin, increased energy, increased metabolic rate, weight loss, lowered blood pressure, increased antioxidant level, increased healthy apoptosis, cleaner intestinal walls, healthier digestion...should I continue?
How To Get Started:
Obviously, you’ll need a juicer, listed below in order is the one I use with my client and then a couple others I found that I like as well. You definitely don’t have to break the bank but expect to spend at least 200-400 dollars on a good juicer because there is a lot of juicers made poorly that don’t actually extract the full juice from the fruit or vegetable:
Recipes
Next, you’ll need some recipes! I like to always have the essentials handy (carrots, celery, cucumber, romaine lettuce, lemons, limes) and by different fruits and vegetables that will comment them well. So below is a list of my favorite recipes for you to try and get started with! Always strive to by organic produce or you will be sacrificing a lot of the nutritional value you get out of juicing. Happy Juicing !
1. Green & Leafy Juice
- 3 stalks of celery
- 1 large cucumber
- 4 Green Kale Leaves
- 2 Romaine Leaves
- 2 Dandelion Leaves
- Handful of parsley
- Thumb of ginger root
- ½ a lime
2. Green & Herby
- 1 green apple
- 2 cucumbers ‘
- Handful of spinach
- 2 romaine leaves
- 8 leaves of mint
- 1 lemon
- ½ thumb of ginger root
- ½ thumb of turmeric root
3. Orange You Glad Juice
- 4 long carrots
- 1 orange
- 1 thumb of turmeric root
- ½ a lemon
- 4 large pieces of pineapple
4. Glowin’ In n Out Juice
- 4 long carrots
- 4 celery stalks
- 3 collard leaves
- Handful of wheatgrass
- Handful of spinach
- Thumb of ginger
5. Liver Cleanse Purple Juice
- 1 large beet
- 2 radishes
- 4 celery stalks
- 1 cucumber
- ½ a lemon
- Handful of cilantro
6. All the Greens Juice
- 1 cucumber
- 1 green apple
- 1 pear
- 4 celery stalks
- 1 lime
- 10 mint leaves
- Handful of wheatgrass
- 2 bok choy leaves
7. The Green Alkalizer
- 1 cucumber
- 1 green apple
- 2 pieces of pineapple
- 3 celery stalks
- 1 lemon
- 1 thumb of ginger
